West Cook News

Democrat Illinois State House candidate Suzanne Akhras Sahloul is an active board member for the Chicago branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization whose leader said he was "happy" that terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel last October 7.

"I was happy to see people breaking the siege," CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said, adding that "Israel as an occupying power does not have (a) right to self-defense" after the October 7 attacks by the terrorist group Hamas.

The Hamas attacks killed 1,200, including 40 Americans, according to U.S. government reports.

That CAIR biography is titled "Suzanne Sahloul," which isn't the name she is using to run for State House.

Her web site and campaign signs say "Suzanne Akhras," omitting the name she uses in her CAIR activities, "Sahloul."

On her campaign web site, Akhras Sahloul, 52, describes her work on "executive boards of various nonprofit organizations" and names several, but omits CAIR, where she has been actively involved since 2011, according to her CAIR biography.

Akrhas Sahloul is running against incumbent Republican Nicole La Ha (R-Homer Glen).

"Let's not hoist a large Islamic flag and let's not be barbaric-talking"

Convictions in the U.S. Government's 2007 "Holy Land" case found that a Muslim U.S. charity had funnelled more than $12 million to Hamas and linked CAIR officials to the terrorist group.

CAIR was named as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the Holy Land case, which led to a new policy to "significantly restrict the FBI's non-investigative interactions with CAIR and to prevent CAIR from publicly exploiting such contacts with the FBI."

A 2013 FBI Inspector General Report described how CAIR staff in Chicago were attending Department of Homeland Security (DHS) briefings.

CAIR was founded as a front group for Hamas in 1993, in anticipation of its being branded a terrorist organization by the U.S., according to George Washington University Professor Lorenzo Vidino.

In a 2023 report on Hamas, after the attacks, Vidino described FBI wiretaps of a 1993 "meeting of top Hamas activists in the US held in Philadelphia" in which they planned creation of CAIR.

"'I swear by Allah that war is deception,' said one senior (Hamas) leader, '[d]eceive, camouflage, pretend that you’re leaving while you’re walking that way. Deceive your enemy...Let's not hoist a large Islamic flag and let's not be barbaric-talking. We will remain a front so that if the thing [the U.S. government ban on Hamas] happens, we will benefit from the new happenings instead of having all of our organizations classified and exposed'" Vidino wrote. "Basing their judgment on ample evidence, U.S. authorities believe that organization to be the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was founded in Washington D.C. a few months after the Philadelphia meeting."

Earlie this year, the Florida House of Representatives passed a resolution denouncing CAIR and encouraging state and local agencies in the state to "suspend contact and outreach activities" with the group.

CAIR itself has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), citing its ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Illinois' 82nd House District includes portions of Western Springs (central Old Town, Forest Hills) as well as La Grange Highlands, eastern Hinsdale, and portions of Willowbrook, Indian Head Park, Burr Ridge, Darien, Willow Springs, Justice, Hickory Hills, Homer Glen and Lemont.